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The global trade in plastic waste

May 27, 2019 | Expert Insights

Background

Plastic pollution is when human-made plastic products accumulate in the Earth's environment. This adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitats and humans. The chemical composition of most plastics means that they resist most natural processes of degradation. Humans widely use plastics because they are inexpensive and durable. According to the Economist, from the 1950s to 2018, an estimated 6.3 billion tons of plastics has been produced. Of this, only 9% is believed to be recycled, while another 12% has been incinerated. 

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal is an international treaty signed in 1992, with 187 party states. It was designed to reduce the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries. 

Analysis

China was the world's biggest importer of plastic scrap until 2018 when it stopped buying non-industrial plastic waste. A recent study shows that by 2030, China's new plastic policy will displace more than 120 million tons of mixed or contaminated plastic. Southeast Asian nations, including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, received much of this diverted plastic. These countries cannot handle such amounts of plastic waste, resulting in action to stop shipments at their ports. In developed countries, plastic trash piled up on docks as exporters searched for new buyers. 

Malaysia's minister of energy, technology, science, climate change and environment, Yeo Bee Yin, recently said that it would send back non-recyclable plastic scrap back to the developed countries that exported it. Malaysia became the largest alternative destination for the waste after China banned its imports. Malaysia's imports of plastic waste increased from 316,000 tons in all of 2017 to 456,000 tons between January and July 2018. Regardless, this is not an accurate indication of the amount of plastic waste entering the country as significant quantities are smuggled in. Yeo Bee Yin also announced that five containers of plastic waste, smuggled into Malaysia, was sent back to its source in Spain. 

In recent months, several unlicensed recycling factories opened up in Malaysia, with many citizens complaining of environmental damage. However, most of the plastic waste imported to the country is contaminated and low-quality plastic that cannot be recycled.Some of the plastic that cannot be recycled is burnt, releasing toxic chemicals. Other plastics are dumped in landfills, contaminating water sources and soil. 

In early-May, the Basel Convention was amended to add mixed plastic scrap to the list of hazardous wastes controlled by the treaty. Under the amended agreement, exporters must obtain consent from the governments of receiving nations before most contaminated, mixed or un-recyclable plastic waste can be shipped. The legally-binding framework is expected to increase transparency in the global plastic waste trade. It does this by forcing exporting countries to monitor where the plastic goes after it leaves its borders. This puts the onus on developed countries to ensure that the receiving nation is capable of processing the waste in a safe, environmentally-friendly manner. 

Although the European Union accounts for the world's largest exporter of plastic waste, the US is the world's largest exporter for a single country. The US is not a party to the Basel Convention. Despite this, the US now has to follow most of the stipulations of the Convention, including having the obtain consent from receiving countries. This is because the receiving country is likely to be a party to the binding Basel Convention. Before the amendment, the US and other countries could send plastic waste to private groups in less developed countries without getting approval from their governments. 

Counterpoint 

In theory, the US could negotiate individual agreements with other countries that would allow trade of contaminated plastic. Regardless, the US would still have to abide by the regulations of the Conventions as most receiving states are a party to it. Although the US is not a party to the Basel Convention, they were privy to the discussion that resulted in the amendment. US officials argued that the measures introduce regulatory hurdles, suggesting that voluntary standards would be more effective than the binding measures proposed by the agreement.

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a trade group, said that amendments "will hamper the world's ability to recycle plastic material." They believe, like US officials, that the amendment creates "an administrate burden that will make it harder for countries without recycling capacity to export collected plastics to countries with infrastructure in place."

Assessment

Our assessment is that the amendments to the Basel Convention introduce greater transparency to the plastic waste industry by making such transactions a matter of public record. We believe that the lack of transparency led to reduced public awareness about the global plastic waste trade. However, with additional regulation, the industry is likely to become more expensive, furthering the divide between the recycling capabilities of developed and less developed nations. We believe that decisions similar to China's curb on plastic imports is the only efficient way to ensure that each country takes care of its waste. This is likely to increase the motivation to control plastic consumption sustainably. We feel that the answer to reducing the Earth's plastic footprint is to reduce its usage even though this is likely to be a difficult and expensive challenge. Towards this goal, we believe that the Basel Convention is an important first step. 

 

Image Courtesy - Muntaka Chasant [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]